POWAY  Keeping an all-volunteer community theater afloat for close to three decades can be like a comedy of errors, in which everything can and, at times, will go wrong.

So says Joel Colbourn, president of Poway Performing Arts Company, or PowPAC.

However, he also says that ultimately the show must go on.

In the 10 years since Colbourn joined PowPAC as a producer, he has helped mitigate minor and major calamities, such as an air-conditioning failure during a midsummer performance.

The company launched its 29th season July 16 with the comedy “The Costume Ball.”

The actors, unpaid and performing for the love of their craft, usually have day jobs and can be transferred to another state between rehearsals and opening day, Colbourn said.

“You may wind up getting a phone call 30 minutes before curtain that your actor hasn’t shown up because he’s been locked out of his apartment,” Colbourn said.

In such instances, pre-performance announcements tend to run a bit long.

In the end, with actors helping to construct sets, or a producer designing the printed program, the pieces usually fall into place by opening day.

PowPAC got its start in the late 1970s before Poway was incorporated, performing Firemen’s Follies reviews to raise money for the local paramedics program.

Founding theater member Barbara Seagren, a retired engineer, thrives on her involvement with PowPAC, constructing and designing sets with her husband, John.

“There are a lot of us who don’t want to be stars, but there is something that is kind of missing in our regular lives,” Seagren said. “It’s fun to get together with a group of people who are so different.”

Colbourn said auditions draw everyone from first-time actors to people who could go professional if they desired the actors’ itinerant lifestyle.

“We try to provide opportunities for that whole spectrum,” he said. “I didn’t step on the stage for the first time until I was 50, then all of a sudden I was in ‘Dial M for Murder.’ ”

Choosing the right actor for a part is crucial, said Colbourn, a certified public accountant.

“You hope (the actors) learn their lines,” he said. “You hope they don’t get sick or gain 50 pounds between the time you cast them and the show opens.

“Unlike a professional theater, we don’t have the luxury of a paid understudy ready to go on at any point.”

Passing by the nondescript Lively Center strip shopping mall on Poway Road — PowPAC’s home since 1996 — the magic taking place behind the building’s stucco facade is not readily apparent.

Yet, on an average budget of about $600 per production, Seagren never fails to dazzle audiences of the 63-seat theater.

“I’ve had an explosion in a gold mine where rocks came flying out and timbers fell,” Seagren said. “We’ve had an oil well gush onto the stage.”

Wendy Wasserstein’s comedy “Isn’t It Romantic?” required Seagren to fit two apartments, an office, a Four Seasons dining room, Central Park and an Italian restaurant on to PowPAC’s 17-by-27-foot stage.

“We actually pulled it off,” Seagren said.

The company is funded primarily by memberships, ticket sales and fundraising, though an occasional $2,000 grant will come its way, Colbourn said.

The company’s greatest expense is rent and royalties. The rights to a production cost $70 to $120 per performance, depending on its popularity.

Obtaining the rights to a desired play or musical can be a challenge for a community theater, Colbourn said. A publisher will often leave a small community theater like PowPAC with an indefinite answer, in hopes of landing a more prestigious venue for its San Diego premiere.

“When you’re the Globe or North Coast Rep you have more clout and a better chance of negotiating with the publisher,” he said.

Persistence has paid off for PowPAC. In 2008, the company obtained the rights to perform David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Rabbit Hole,” the same year the play was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. PowPAC’s rendition received a slew of Aubrey Awards, which honor the area’s best community theater.